


Five Meditations of Jedi Depa Billaba

by skatzaa



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: 5+1 Things, Depa Billaba-centric, Gen, Jedi, Jedi Culture, Jedi Temple (Star Wars), Jedi Temple Aquatic Levels, Meditation, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:54:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23224354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/pseuds/skatzaa
Summary: What is says on the tin.(Plus one more, for good measure.)
Relationships: Depa Billaba & Kanan Jarrus, Depa Billaba & Kit Fisto, Depa Billaba & Mace Windu, Depa Billaba & Yoda
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56
Collections: Jedi-Friendly, Worldbuilding Exchange 2020





	Five Meditations of Jedi Depa Billaba

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rivulet027](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivulet027/gifts).



> Rivulet027, I hope you enjoy!
> 
> I have pulled quite a bit from different sources for information on the Jedi, which I then built off of; the source I perhaps pulled most from (other than Wookieepedia) was the _Star Wars: Complete Locations_ book... the Jedi Temple complex page alone was worth buying that book lol. That being said, I also elected to ignore some of the stuff about the meditation chamber for padawans about to be knighted. Oops?

1.

Depa reached out for the Force again, as Master Yoda had described. She could _almost_ feel it, there, at the very edge of her perception, that sense of clarity, like—

Wood clattered against stone. Was it Master Yoda, strolling through the rows of her clan mates as they all tried to follow his instructions? She sensed him pausing, the sound of gimer on rock falling away, and then, a moment later, the rippling burst of Gevra’s pride, washing over the initiates nearest to him until he subsided into meditation once more.

Too late, Depa realized that she had lost the thread of it again, and she could not suppress a tiny sigh of frustration. It was so _easy_ when Master Sosun explained it to her in the still quiet of the initiate dorms, but here in the gardens? With all of her clan mates around her, their bright emotions each vying for her attention? And that didn’t even include the sounds of the gardens themselves—masters and knights talking softly as they passed, the wind rustling through the tree overhead, the rush and tumble of running water, somewhere close… 

“Distracted, I sense you are, Initiate Billaba,” Master Yoda said from somewhere nearby. Depa yelped, her eyes flying open.

Master Yoda stood a few paces away, claws resting on the top of his walking stick. His ears rose and fell as she mumbled an apology.

“Sorry, you are? Tell me why, you must.”

Depa glanced around at her clan mates, not wanting to disturb them—or for anyone to overhear—but at Master Yoda’s insisting stare, she said, “I understand mediation in theory, Master, but I keep getting distracted out here. There’s just so much..” she broke off, and considered her words. “Everything is so _bright_ to my senses, that the Force itself seems quiet in response. I can’t see past the brightness.”

“Hmm.” She wasn’t sure if that made any sense, but at least Master Yoda looked contemplative, rather than disappointed. “Understand your problem, I believe I do. Come. Help, I believe this may.”

Ears burning at being singled out, Depa stood and followed him away from her clan. She could see over the top of Master Yoda’s head, she realized, to the bushes he was hobbling toward. It was strange to already be taller than him, but she tucked the feeling away so that he would not sense it.

They followed a path that wound between two of the bushes that hemmed in the clearing they were in, and it deposited them on the banks of the stream she had heard before. The far bank was perhaps a meter away, but the water didn’t look as though it was more than ankle deep.

Master Yoda sat, resting his walking stick across his legs, and indicated for Depa to join him. She had always meditated with her heels tucked beneath her, as Master Sosun had taught, but now she mirrored Master Yoda instead, crossing her legs. She placed her hands on her knees and waited. She was not left waiting for long.

“Meditate in the gardens, we do, because many distractions there are in the wider galaxy. Learn to exist within them, a Jedi must.” He tilted his head to one side, an ear dipping, and asked, “Know the difference, do you, between the Living and the Cosmic Force, hmm?”

“Yes Master.” Depa stopped, chewed on her lip. “Master Gaj explained it to us. The Cosmic Force is what binds the galaxy together, while the Living Force… supports the Cosmic Force? It’s energy comes from all life.”

“Good, very good. But remember, you must, that _both_ the Force, they are. When meditating, ignore the Living Force you did, in favor of the Cosmic Force. But teach us much, the Living Force can.”

Depa thought about it, her forehead creasing. It almost made sense, in the same way the Force—the Cosmic Force?—had hovered just outside her reach earlier. “I’m not sure I understand, Master.”

“Hmm.” Master Yoda gestured toward the stream, and Depa shifted to face it as he did. Grass crunched beneath her until she settled again. “This stream consider, we shall. Part of the Living Force it is, just as part of the Living Force, _you_ are. Connected we all are, in the Cosmic Force, yes. But actively tie us _together_ the _Living_ Force does. Meditate we should, on that.”

Depa sat, and listened to the burble of the stream as it continued on its merry way, and tried to understand the riddle that Master Yoda had placed before her. She closed her eyes again, but this time, instead of trying to push through the distractions to the calm of the Cosmic Force, she allowed those distractions to settle around her.

There were tiny fish in the stream, each a bright, sharp spark of life, and above her, the trees pulsed with that same light, slow and ponderous, moving at a pace only the trees could understand. Beside her, Master Yoda felt more like the trees than the fish, self contained and dimly lit, but still vibrant. And beyond all that, the thoughts of her clan mates, the paths of the birds overhead, the intentionality of a knight moving through a kata. 

They all existed, but they did not overwhelm her. She allowed them to flow through her, for they were the Living Force, as she was.

Slowly, measuring out each word and thought as it came to her, Depa said, “The Cosmic Force is like a deep pool of water then… motion will cause ripples across the surface, but the deeper you sink into it, the more still it becomes. The less affected it is by the ripples on the surface.” She paused, listened to the water as it moved over the pebbles and stones of its bed. “But the Living Force… It’s this stream. It’s constantly in motion, because it _is_ us—you and me, and the fish and the trees. And,” she hazarded to guess, “even the planets?”

“Very good, youngling,” Master Yoda said, his voice full of hidden delight. He was proud of her, and the warmth of the realization spread throughout her chest. “Now meditate, you shall, on the Living Force. Tell me later, you will, what you have learned.”

“Yes, Master.”

Depa heard him stand, felt him leave, but she allowed the distraction to find its place in the galaxy around her, and it faded into unimportance. She opened her mind wider, trying to feel the whole of the gardens, and allowed the Force to flow through her like the stream. 

* * *

2.

Depa did not flinch as the door closed behind her, the click of the lock disproportionately loud in the small, close silence of the chapel.

She knew about the chapels—officially known as the Chapels of First Knowledge, but only ever called the padawan chapels by everyone who wasn’t Master Yoda—because how could she not? She had been one of the youngest in her clan, and now she was fifteen. Several of her old clan mates had already been chosen by masters, and while they had been annoyingly tight lipped about the experience, she’d managed to weasel a few details out of them over the years.

Branth, who had been assigned to meditate in the southwestern chapel, had said it was like sitting amongst the clouds of a gas planet as the sun set. Zyhileh had admitted that the northeastern chapel reminded her of the Room of a Thousand Fountains, though Nillu, fresh from her first mission with her new master, had compared it to the lush forests of Naboo.

But she was in the northwestern chapel, and _nothing_ could have prepared her for it.

Blue, _everywhere._ Blue tiles in the mosaic floors, blue stones on the walls, larger blue tiles on the pillars supporting the chapel’s domed roof. It was as though she was standing in a vortex of waves, the swirl of them rising above her head, only moments from crashing down. Blue stained glass in all of the long, thin windows, lit from without, despite the fact that the chapel was enclosed in the outer walls of the temple, so that the light swam around her, rippling over the blue stone walls and her own dark skin.

It was like drowning and sinking and floating, all at once, and Depa _loved_ it. 

The center of the chapel was the only area that _wasn’t_ blue, instead a mass of black-gray-brown—perhaps meant to be a rock, a resting point amidst a turbulent sea—and that was where she settled, legs crossed, hands on her knees.

Master Windu had chosen _her_ to be his padawan, and still, she did not know why. In fact, she knew little of Master Windu himself, beyond what Temple gossip would have her believe, save three things. One: he performed katas like no Jedi she had ever seen, his motions sharp and dangerous, and full of something that made her heart feel as though it was too big for her chest. Two: she had seen him once give up his entire meal in the commissary to a Togruta initiate who had not made it in time to receive the proper meal for their dietary restrictions.

Three: he had saved her as an infant and brought her to the temple. 

She had no idea what she had done to catch his eye, to convince the creator of an _entire_ lightsaber form that _she_ would be a good choice. But surely, that’s what these chapels were for? To reflect, and to seek better understanding for why a particular master might choose the initiate they did.

Depa wondered, idly, as she closed her eyes and began to regulate her breathing, if Master Yoda had had a hand in assigning her to this chapel. If he, too, remembered that lesson years ago where he had plunked her before a stream helped her to better understand the Force. She hoped he had.

Depa sank into the currents of the Force, waves rising up around her, determined to emerge with a better understanding of her place in the Order, now that it was by Master Windu’s side. 

* * *

3.

Unlike the sweeping grandeur of the Coruscant Temple or the remote and frigid grace of the one on Ilum, the temple hidden deep in the forests of Ashas Ree was a warren of cramped chambers and twisting corridors. Depa didn’t know what Jedi had once lived here, but she had to stoop several times to pass through doorways, and her lower back was cramping slightly and slicked with sweat from the damp heat trapped within the temple.

Depa swiped hair off of her forehead and breathed deeply, centering herself. She’d lost the pins for her simple padawan bun several chambers before, and the loose hair kept tickling her face. Only her braid remained intact. Her palm felt empty without a saber hilt to grasp; it was no one’s fault but her own that she’d lost her saber on that mission to Glee Anslem, and she _knew_ that a lightsaber did not make one a Jedi, but still. 

She wished that Master Windu would have postponed their temple trip long enough for Depa to find a new crystal. 

Even the fact that she was _here,_ instead of on another planet, dealing with some other temple’s riddles, was technically her own fault. The padawan chose the path, as Master Windu had delighted in telling her. Multiple times. It was just her luck she’d chosen the one that dealt so heavily in the physical.

The door to the next chamber in the temple’s illogical and rigged path was made of genuine wood, as the rest had been, though one edge of this one had been singed by a saber at some point in the distant past. She took another breath—

And sneezed.

“Ugh.” She wiped at her nose, pushed her hair back once more, and brought her hands up in a defensive pose. She was _Jedi:_ she needed no weapon to survive, for she contained all that she would need.

The door swung shut behind her as she stepped into the chamber, just as all the other doors had. Depa kept her hands up, muscles relaxed, ready for whatever this room planned to throw at her. But—nothing. None of the illusions and visions that had bombarded her in the past chambers. No walls lurching inward to crush her, no puzzles to solve before the sand pouring into the room became too difficult to move through.

Depa reached out in the Force, careful to focus on the ripples of the Living Force for signs that something, _anything,_ was about to happen. But again, nothing. She waited a moment longer, then allowed her hands to fall, her posture to straighten.

This chamber was larger than the others, with windows that were larger than the span of her forearm though they were missing their transparisteel panes, if they had ever had them to begin with. She must have progressed further into the temple than she realized, for the light was much stronger here than on the ground level, where the canopy left much in shadows. Motes of dust trailed lazily through the sunbeams. The floor was dust covered as well, undisturbed save for the footprints of some tiny rodent. There was no door other than the one she had come through, and when she turned, she discovered that it had disappeared, the wall now an uninterrupted stretch of stone.

Well. Perhaps there were some illusions here after all. 

Depa sighed, and strode into the center of the room, her heels kicking up dust. She sneezed, then sneezed again. 

Once the air had settled somewhat, she sat about where she thought the center should be, though the floor held no indication. Another difference from the Coruscant Temple, where they so often centered themselves physically as well as spiritually.

Depa breathed. The star of this system was yellow, and the light through the windows was edging toward golden; the day continued to slip towards twilight, but this was not Ilum. She would not become trapped here at sundown. All that mattered was finishing the tasks the temple set before her and emerging as quickly as she could. Master Windu was waiting for her. 

She slipped into the Force easily. The temple had been still and silent, beyond the areas that Depa disturbed during her journey, and the Force mirrored it. She could feel the Living Force teasing at the edge of her senses, just as the forest closed in around the temple, but did not pursue it. 

Depa let the events of the day slide through her mind, and after them came the frustrations she still carried from the Glee Anslem mission. Depa gave them the attention she deserved, and resolved to do better: she would be less impatient, more mindful of her master’s instructions, and she would try not to underestimate her environment so badly again. 

Deep within the temple, something groaned. The floor grumbled and shook beneath her, but Depa did not flinch. The Force told her that she would not be harmed, and she believed.

When she opened her eyes again the room was dark, save for the faint glow of a green kyber crystal, settled on the floor within arms’ reach. The dust around it remained undisturbed.

Depa kept her hands on her knees, did not reach for the crystal. It hummed in her mind, bright and vibrant. Her old crystal had been blue as the sea, its resonance deep and slow. This crystal could not be more different.

It was meant for her. But the question was: did she want it?

Master Windu would take her to Ilum to retrieve a new crystal, or perhaps even Jedha, with their strange kyber that plucks at the strings of her mind. She did not need to take this one, though the temple offered it. 

But…

It was not the Jedi way, to hold on to what had been lost.

She lifted one hand from her knee, reached out. Hesitated. In the Force, she let the crystal sing to her. It felt like the forest of Ashas Ree beyond the temple’s walls, full of life and light. 

Depa took the crystal in her hand. She could already see the form the saber hilt would take around it. It would be different, but it would be hers, and it would better suit her journey from here on out.

Behind her, the door clicked open.

She tucked the crystal into her belt and stood, wiping dust from her hands. She was not surprised to step out of the room and find herself in the temple’s atrium, Master Windu kneeling exactly where she had left him.

He opened his eyes and smiled, as much as he ever smiled at anyone. “So. You survived your Ordeal, then?”

“Yes, Master,” Depa said, and held out a hand to help him up. He wouldn’t admit it, but she knew his knees bothered him. 

Master Windu shot her a sardonic look, but accepted her help.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” he asked.

“Yes,” Depa said again, and patted her belt, over the spot where the crystal rested. “And I think we’ll need to make a detour to visit Professor Huyang.”

Master Windu raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question her.

Depa stepped out into the evening air, and felt confident in her path.

* * *

4.

Depa kept her eyes closed against the dark, and did not allow her fingers to linger over her braid. These would be her last moments as a padawan, the last moments under her master’s guidance, and she…

She breathed deeply, in and out and in again, doing her best to keep a steady rhythm. It would do nothing to lose her head now. 

The time was right. She had been expecting this for some time, and she knew she _was_ ready. Master Windu’s approval only confirmed that which she knew to be true.

And still. She felt so _young._ Too young.

Depa breathed, and did not open her eyes. It would do her little good, here in the dark, and regardless, she did not need to. The knighting meditation chamber was perhaps the smallest area in the entire temple, and the most simple. It had been carved out of the very peak of the sacred spire around which the temple was situated, barely large enough for a padawan to sit comfortably in. The floor was rough hewn beneath her, pitted and dipped, worn from the bodies of millennia of Jedi who had come before her. 

Knighthood would bring no changes that she was not prepared for. 

Or would it?

Her last mission with Master Windu, to a tiny Outer Rim planet most had never heard of, had been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster, and she knew the blame rested solely on her shoulders. Was she truly ready?

No.

_Refocus,_ she told herself. This line of thinking was unhelpful, at the very least. Lingering on her doubts was not the way to approach knighthood. 

Instead, Depa breathed, and reached _out._

The Jedi High Council stood on the balcony that surrounded the spire’s peak, awaiting her emergence from the meditation chamber. Their emotions were hidden from her, and she had never had a talent for that anyway, but she could sense the deep swirling currents that flowed between them, the give and the take of their partnerships. Beyond: the bright sparks of Jedi going about their days—walking, eating, sparring in blazing bursts of energy and intention. The tightly controlled presence of Madam Nu in the Archives, and the flushed embarrassment of the younglings she was chastising. The fluid paths of Jedi in the aquatic levels, the quiet minds of the nocturnal members of the Order as they slept. Even, as she stretched herself further, the class of initiates learning about meditation from their clan leader in the temple gardens.

She sensed them all, and held them in her mind.

This was her home and these were her people. To accept this next step in her journey would benefit them all, and not just herself. To give in to her doubts would hinder the Order as a whole.

Depa could remember a time when she had struggled to touch the Living Force, and now, she could feel every one of her fellow members of the Order.

She was ready.

Depa stood and reached out to the door. Her master was waiting for her, and the Council. 

She went out to meet them.

* * *

5.

“Have you ever visited the aquatic levels?” Kit asked, trailing his toes through the deep pool nestled in the heart of the Room of A Thousand Fountains.

Depa reached up and gathered her hair, still loose and heavy with water, and drew it over one shoulder. She knew from experience that it would take it the longest to dry, and she hated the feeling of wet hair on her back.

“Once or twice,” she said, and considered. “Master Windu wanted me to be familiar with every part of the temple, especially considering his seat on the council.” She glanced at Kit, his shining, unbound tresses draped over his shoulder in a mirror of her hair. “Why?”

He shrugged. “There are some meditation areas down there.”

Depa turned to look at him fully, and didn’t miss the slight upturn quirk of his mouth.

“Are you inviting me to meditate with you, Knight Fisto?” Depa said, and couldn’t suppress her own grin.

Kit actually blinked at her, and broke into a laugh, teeth shining in the afternoon light.

Depa shed her robe and hung it on a hook off to the side of the room, where several others waited. A door led to a dressing room, where the Jedi who lived underwater kept their clothing that was suited for land activities, but she didn’t stray there. Instead, she took a breath and grabbed her rebreather. She tried to brace herself, though she knew it was useless, and turned back around.

The chamber that led to the aquatic levels was less of a chamber and more of a fish bowl, clear transparisteel on four sides—three walls and the ceiling—and the duracrete floor descended into steps that disappeared below the water line. Some marvel of engineering and physics meant that this chamber was not at the top of the aquatic levels, but thrust out from one side, and the force of the air in the chamber kept the water outside.

Depa stared out at it, breathless, and watched a Mon Calamari swim past, and waved when the other Jedi did. She had never experienced anything like this outside of aquatic planets, and _here._

Somewhere nearby, Kit laughed. Depa managed to pull her attention away from the view to give him a friendly scowl, which Kit, standing waist high in the water already, elected not to notice.

“Are you coming?” he called, smile bright. 

She rolled her eyes, but followed after him.

Just like the atmospheric portions of the temple, the water of the aquatic levels was kept at a temperature that would be most comfortable for all the aquatic species who resided at the temple, and so the first touch of water against her skin was cool, but not chilled.

Kit disappeared into the water, and Depa followed. With a final glance at the giant transparisteel, she slotted the rebreather into her mouth and took the final step to submerge herself.

She had always enjoyed swimming, and this was no different. Following in Kit’s wake, she pushed away from the stairs and swam after him.

Aquatic levels was perhaps a misleading term, Depa acknowledged, sucking in a breath through the rebreather. It was one huge, open atrium for the vast majority of the space, with levels of sleeping chambers, sparing areas, and the other areas necessary to daily life stacked at the edges of the atrium, protruding in the same way as the chamber they had entered through. 

Depa waved to the Jedi she recognized, which, she realized as they continued further down, was fewer than she would like. They all waved—or gave their species’ equivalent—in return, but none interrupted their journey.

Kit continued further down than Depa had ever gone on her explorations; she hadn’t had a guide, as a padawan—Master Windu was a firm believer in building experience for one’s self—and so she hadn’t strayed too far, not wanting to infringe upon more private areas. 

By the time they reached their goal—a small alcove on the eastern side of the atrium, tucked beneath what looked to be a long, narrow commissary—Depa’s arms and legs ached, and she was forced to admit that perhaps she had neglected this part of her training since the end of her apprenticeship. Swimming in the temple gardens’ pools with Kit was one thing, but this proved that she was not in the shape she needed to be in, if she was ever assigned a mission to an underwater environment again.

The alcove was deserted, and, at Kit’s gesture, Depa swam over to one of the strange, hanging contraptions that stretched from floor to ceiling. She watched what Kit did, and realized that they were straps, to hold a Jedi in place as they meditated. She imagined it would be rather disconcerting, to open your eyes and find that you were very far from where you started. 

There were at least six straps per set, so far as she could count, but Kit only secured two, looping one around each bicep. He gave her a smile and a cheeky thumbs up, and she knew he was making fun of her hesitation.

Depa thought about how she normally meditated: legs crossed, hands on knees. It wouldn’t work here, and now she understood why Kit’s meditations had so often taken the form of standing upright, or even moving. But she wasn’t sure that straps around her arms or legs would suffice either. 

After a moment’s more deliberation, Depa finally reached out and took two of the straps. They stretched oddly when she pulled, and she didn’t know what type of material they were made out of. The material stuck to itself, but not her, and she managed to create a sort of waist harness with only a small amount of difficulty.

Sensing more than seeing that Kit was laughing at her, Depa closed her eyes and ignored him in favor of meditating.

Her meditation technique, since her early initiate days, had always depended largely on water related visualizations, but nothing could have prepared her for _this._ She knew, _knew_ from every lesson ever taught to her, that the Force flowed through and connected all things, and that it was not different from one place to the next, but it _felt_ different here. Perhaps it was the water itself, distorting her perception of her surroundings, or the heightened awareness of her breathing, to ensure she didn’t accidentally suck in water through her nose, or…

She didn’t know what it was, but it was _something._ Something was different, and she basked in it, in the soft lull of the Force against her senses.

This was peace, in its truest form, and Depa was overwhelmed with affection for her friend, for being the one to show it to her. 

Receiving and transmitting emotions had never been her strong point, but Depa reached out in the Force for Kit, brushed against his presence and felt his quiet mind, open and receptive. She tried to impress upon him the gift he had given her, her wonder and amazement and peace, and she felt something from him in return… it was warm and bright and made her giddy, much in the same way Kit himself did. 

Depa couldn’t smile with a rebreather in, but a smile stole over her anyhow, and she sank deeper into her meditation, allowing her mind to stay open to Kit’s as they continued, sharing in her joy and contentment.

* * *

+1.

“But Master,” and Depa never thought she would get used to hearing that aimed at _her,_ especially not from the mouth of this tiny child who was now _her_ padawan, “why do we all stay at the Coruscant Temple, if the Order has others?”

Depa did not sigh, but she did remind herself that she had chosen Caleb as much as he had chosen her, and that she had brought all of the questions upon herself. She said, “Some were used at other times, when there were more Jedi in the galaxy—and more unrest. Some, such as the Dantooine Temple, are still in use by certain factions of the Order. But Coruscant is the political center of the galaxy, and since the Order was brought under the oversight of the Senate, it makes a considerable amount of sense for the majority of the Jedi to be stationed there.”

Caleb stuck his chin out mulishly as he thought about this. His little padawan braid bounced against his shoulder as they walked, and he reached up to swipe at the hair sticking to his forehead.

“Master,” he said, just as she was beginning to hope he’d accepted it, “how old were you when you underwent the Ordeal? And did it happen for you on Vrogas Vas too?”

“No,” Depa took a sip of water from her canteen and passed it along to Caleb, who grabbed it and took his own sip. “My Ordeal took place in a different temple. And I was eighteen. I wasn’t chosen as a padawan until I was fifteen.”

A much more reasonable age to be chosen, in her mind, but the war did not take their own timelines into consideration. It had been difficult enough to obtain permission to allow Caleb his Ordeal before they shipped out for the first time.

“But why are we here?” Caleb asked, gesturing around them at the towering ruins.

In truth, Depa didn’t know the answer to that either. She hadn’t even known there had been a temple on Vrogas Vas at one point in time until Caleb had chosen it on the star map. But she said, “The Force guided you here for a reason, padawan mine. It is up to you to determine what that reason is.”

Caleb tilted his chin up to look at her, his eyes so large in his small face. He asked, “What will you do, while I’m… gone?”

Depa gestured ahead, to the only great, arching doorway that still stood. Two skeletons flanked the doorway, forever left to their meditations. 

“I’ll be here, with these fine beings,” she said, and winked when Caleb looked back up at her in poorly masked horror. “Awaiting your return.”

Caleb glanced back at the skeletons, and then up at her once more. His horror shifted into pure determination, and he set off toward the doorway. After only a few feet, he hesitated, one foot still off the ground, before pivoting on his heel. He came back to her at nearly a run, and almost took out her intestines with the force of his hug.

Depa brought her hands up and patted his back, trying to remember the stern way Mace had looked at her after she had hugged him. Anything to keep Caleb from knowing how close she was to melting.

He pulled away, mulish set to his chin back. 

“I’ll be back soon, Master,” he told her, before turning around to face the doorway again. “I promise!”

Depa watched him go, waited until he stepped through the doorway and disappeared, and only then did she kneel. Legs crossed, hands on her knees.

“I have no doubt, little one,” she murmured to nothing, and began her vigil.

**Author's Note:**

> I could have continued with these forever, because with each scene, I seemed to dig up another aspect of Jedi life and culture that I had never considered before. But alas, this selection will have to suffice for the time being.
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Comments and kudos are always appreciated.


End file.
